Part One: Great Expectations

Chapter Four: Wakey-Wakey

There are some things no man ever wants to wake up to. A house on fire. An ex-lover keen to test the sharpness of the knife on your manhood. An alarm clock.

A sworn enemy- who is quite naked- peering down at you at close quarters would very easily be in Tony's top ten.

So really, no one could fault Tony for yelping and punching said enemy under such circumstances. It's just unfortunate that he's probably done more harm to his knuckles than he did Loki' stupid cheekbones.

"What the fuck man?" Tony Stark does not shriek. No he does not. And he is so deleting this scene from Jarvis' memory banks when this is over.

"And we were getting on so well, Tony," Loki smirks, unaffected by his poor attempt at self-defence. Tony sits up, pushing the man away with a hand. He scrambles away, feels his back hit the cool plastered wall.

Oh God he is so, so dead.

They sit there, Tony on the verge of a panic attack, Loki as calm and collected as he ever is. He watches in growing horror as the fallen God extends a hand and caresses the scarred skin around his arc reactor. His face is impassive, gaze focussed intently on the machine embedded in his chest. He looks alien in the blue light, the sharp panes of his face cast into shadow.

"I'd always wondered what this was for. It seemed pointless and gaudy at the time." His hand splays out over the machine and piercing eyes turned blue in its light lift to contemplate him, "But it's keeping you alive, isn't it?" the fingers tighten around the reactor, as if readying themselves to rip it out of him but pull away at the last moment. Tony wishes he had suit.

"What do you want?" he says hoarsely. Loki sighs and sits back. It's at this point that he realises that Loki is not in fact completely naked, though his chest is bare. He frowns at the Asgardian's trousers.

"Are those mine?" he asks, feeling slightly indignant. Loki shrugs.

"In case you didn't notice Stark, I hardly came in here prepared. Although I can put on the dress again, if you'd like."

Tony needs some brain bleach. Very much so. Because that image is unlikely to leave him for the rest of his miserable existence. He suddenly feels like crying.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he gasps, half tempted to start scratching out his eyes, "You can keep them. In fact, take a shirt too while you're at it." He gestures to the walk-in wardrobe, filled with all the clothes he'll ever need and then some.

Loki nods and stands up, elegant and fluid and dammit Tony wants to punch him again. He at least feels comforted by the fact that the man who was supposed to be Earth's undesirable number one was now on the other side of the room. He hears a light flick on in the other room.

"What are you doing here?" he asks when he finally manages to calm himself down, "I thought you were supposed to be on Asgard… in prison." The God turns halfway through slipping one of Tony's old band t-shirts on. A wicked smile creeps across his face.

"I was bored."

"Isn't that kind of the idea of prison?"

He shrugs again, "Probably."

"Then why me? Why not some other poor bastard?"

The God's face turns serious, "There is another reason."

Tony perks up at this, now burning with curiosity, "What?" Loki walks out and sits on the edge of the bed, elbows leaning on his knees. It's a surprisingly human gesture and for a moment Tony is caught off guard.

"I've come with a warning."

"A warning?" he parrots. His guest nods slowly.

"Something has come to Midgard. I know not where it came from, but it reeks of death."

"You don't know… are you saying it's come from another world, like you?"

"I believe so. But it does not come from a world under Heimdall's watch." Tony frowns at that.

"What do you mean, it's not under Heimdall's watch?" Loki shrugs.

"Make of it what you will. Be wary, Stark. No good will come from this."

"So what do you want us to do? Destroy it?" Loki's lips thin.

"I don't know if you can. But find it, learn its purpose. Under no circumstances should you trust it. Death saturates it; mark my words- it is dangerous and cannot be controlled."

If Tony didn't know better, he'd say that Loki was feeling concerned for Earth. It feels weird beyond all meaning of the word to receive a warning like this from the Asgardian who tried to subjugate the planet to his reign. He is understandably suspicious- the trickster god of lies has not only broken himself out of prison and found his way back to Earth, he's also pretended to be a woman and slept with him, which- fuck he shouldn't have thought of that, now he's creeped out all over again.

Yep, he's definitely taking Loki's warning with a grain of salt. For all Tony knows, he's planted a red herring for Tony to find whilst the bastard runs off to oppress Australia with flying kangaroos and dropbears. Or he's using reverse psychology in the hopes that someone will actually use the thing and blow a hole in space and time… or something.

"So how am I supposed to find it?" he asks carefully. Loki rolls his eyes in exasperation.

"You're a genius Stark- or at least a human one- use your brain." Tony scowls at the back-handed compliment, "Don't let it fall into the wrong hands. There are beings in this universe that no power on Earth could ever hope to conquer. Should they learn about this..." Loki scrutinises his fingers for a moment before looking back up, "Well, I don't think I need to inform you of the consequences. I'm sure you can work it out for yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind."

The Asgardian nods regally and stands up. Tony's trousers are several inches too short for the tall man, but he manages to pull it off, "You make sure that you do." He says loftily and Tony has the strongest urge to poke his tongue out at him. He manages to quell the urge, but only just.

Suddenly, out of the blue, the grin is back, "Later Stark."

And now Tony is alone in his room, wondering what it was exactly that just happened.

Please review :)